Returning from shopping recently, I was escorted up my drive way by the most regal of all insects, a massive swarm of honey bees. Watching them find safety in a small leafy bush had me call a bee keeper to give them a new home. Watching this timeless practice of ever so gently guiding this huge swarm to the safety of a box with frame, without these happy wanderers causing concern to onlookers, reminded this writer that some things are irreversible.
Another timeless tool that gave Australia enormous wealth was the humble cane knife. The sugar industry of North Queensland was built around the cane knife and the men who wielded it with distinction. However, machines have supposedly improved things. As the earth is torn and degraded today by the horrors of machinery as big as a house gouging minerals from one’s back yard if the chance arose and reading of the Pike River coal mine in New Zealand recently, it was stated that the coal mining tragedy lost many lives, and billions of New Zealand dollars to the bottom line.
Canny observers have spoken of the mini trauma that appears to be shaking the shaky Isles, encouraging mass migration from the country, leaving more land for miners. Australian farmers appear to be going the same way. Contrasting the Australia of today to that of not many years ago is the stuff of nightmares. Who has ever heard of minerals such as dysprosium, terbium, erbium and terrarium used to drive hybrid and electric cars, wind turbines, computer disc drives, fibre optic telecommunication cables, low energy light bulbs and military equipment?
To save electric energy used by the old light bulbs this horrendous mining rush is supposed to be the answer. Give us a break! The cane cutters of the past were weatherproof, and the bee keepers of today have kept bee keeping standards, little changed when facing the land losses mining will deal them.
Melba Morris
